ISLAMABAD: A team of observers from the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) met with ex-Prime Minister and disqualified head of the Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif, 68, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, 44, and her husband Muhammad Safdar Awan, 54, at the Rawalpindi Central Jail on Thursday. The three were arrested last Friday having been charged with corruption in the Avenfield reference in July. 

The three-member team, led by PBC vice chairman Kamran Murtaza, was unimpressed with the “B-class or better” facilities provided by prison authorities to the three politicians. 
“It’s regrettable that father and daughter have been kept in Isolation” said Murtaza. “They haven’t been allowed to see each other since a previous meeting with the family. Maryam isn’t even allowed to see her husband Safdar.”
In Pakistan, public-office holders and political figures, ex-servicemen, and individuals with a certain level of education usually qualify for “privileged” status in the country’s prison system, meaning they can pay to ensure they have a private room with attached bathroom, a bed, a television, meals of their choice, daily newspapers, and a fan or, in some cases, even air-conditioning. 
The team was allowed a 30-minute meeting with the three prisoners, with several prison officers in attendance, during which Sharif reportedly spoke of an incident following his arrest which he claimed constituted “harassment” by security officials.
“The first night in prison, they (Maryam and Nawaz) weren’t given a bed. A slim mattress was placed on the floor. At 3 a.m., a makeshift bed was brought to their cells” after they complained, according to Murtaza. “Outside food items weren’t permitted. Food is being prepared inside the jail for them, but they aren’t asked what they want to eat. Even the groceries brought in aren’t conveyed to the Sharifs.” He added that food and other “material” delivered to the three prisoners had been withheld by the guards, including meat “which ultimately rotted” and had to be thrown away.
He also claimed that the three are being held in a section of the prison where bathrooms and cells smell strongly of human excrement. 
“The odor is so vile, even C-class prisoners (kept in general population) wouldn’t be able to bear it,” Murtaza said. “This is cruel.”
The observers said they would send a letter urging the Prime Minister to take appropriate action to rectify the matter. However, reports suggest security concerns mean officials are are already considering moving the Sharifs to Safwat Lodge — police-college accommodation in Sihala, near Islamabad. It was originally proposed that the politicians would be held in this “sub-jail” following their arrival from London and subsequent arrest, but authorities reversed that decision.
The lodge has previously been used as a detention house for many political prisoners including ex-President Asif Ali Zardari. The conditions are far more comfortable than regular prison. However, Murtaza told Arab News that no such plan had been shared with the Sharifs yet.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, prison authorities denied the Sharifs’ defense lawyers permission to meet their clients, claiming that only family members are allowed to visit prisoners on Thursdays. The lawyers have had trouble meeting with the Sharifs to decide their strategy in the Al Azizia Steel Mill and Flagship Investment references. The caretaker Federal Cabinet on Wednesday reversed its announcement that Nawaz Sharif would face his pending corruption trials in prison.